Maybe there are like... nuclear weapons in Ferguson, or alien autopsies, or ancient and subtle magic. Something that must be protected at all costs from the public. Maybe white privilege.

sdmikev
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2014-08-19T17:15:03Z —
#4

John Oliver pretty much has the best take on the whole thing thus far.

nox
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2014-08-19T17:17:48Z —
#5

The vast majority of images I've seen have been peaceful protesters, yet all other news sources are completely looter-focused in their coverage.

Sure this may be intentional manipulation to control public perception of the police response. I just didn't expect reddit to be fooled as well.

tachin1
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2014-08-19T17:30:43Z —
#6

4.- (Classified)

Nell_Anvoid
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2014-08-19T17:39:20Z —
#7

If it bleeds, it leads. This stuff doesn't help matters...

zikzak
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2014-08-19T17:52:57Z —
#8

This feels like it's becoming more than just outrage at a particular situation. It's the death of American Exceptionalism in the popular mind. The public and the media are being forced to recognize that the US is no different from Egypt or Spain or Greece or any of the other places where images like this are commonplace.

We are just another fucked up nation with corrupt and repressive authorities and violently oppressed minorities. The images we're seeing seem like they should be from "elsewhere", some place where this kind of thing happens. Elsewhere, insurrections and revolutions are sparked by this kind of thing. But turns out elsewhere is here.

This is a practice run for the coming food, water, weather, resource, gas, riots. Right?

danegeld
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2014-08-19T18:01:43Z —
#10

The principles which were set out in the ‘General Instructions’ that were issued to every new police officer from 1829 were:

To prevent crime and disorder, as an alternative to their repression by military force and severity of legal punishment.

To recognise always that the power of the police to fulfil their functions and duties is dependent on public approval of their existence, actions and behaviour and on their ability to secure and maintain public respect.

To recognise always that to secure and maintain the respect and approval of the public means also the securing of the willing co-operation of the public in the task of securing observance of laws.

To recognise always that the extent to which the co-operation of the public can be secured diminishes proportionately the necessity of the use of physical force and compulsion for achieving police objectives.

To seek and preserve public favour, not by pandering to public opinion; but by constantly demonstrating absolutely impartial service to law, in complete independence of policy, and without regard to the justice or injustice of the substance of individual laws, by ready offering of individual service and friendship to all members of the public without regard to their wealth or social standing, by ready exercise of courtesy and friendly good humour; and by ready offering of individual sacrifice in protecting and preserving life.

To use physical force only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient to obtain public co-operation to an extent necessary to secure observance of law or to restore order, and to use only the minimum degree of physical force which is necessary on any particular occasion for achieving a police objective.

To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and that the public are the police, the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.

To recognise always the need for strict adherence to police-executive functions, and to refrain from even seeming to usurp the powers of the judiciary of avenging individuals or the State, and of authoritatively judging guilt and punishing the guilty.

To recognise always that the test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, and not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with them.

To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and that the public are the police, the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.

Of course, police of the time certainly had certain "standards" to keep, as far as who exactly qualified as "the public", and which citizens received which. Some got the cream, some got the crop.

Since we are mentioning policing policies from a bygone era, let's have a St Louis Dispatch headline from a bygone era as well, that I just happened to have on my coffee table.

This feels like it's becoming more than just outrage at a particular situation. It's the death of American Exceptionalism in the popular mind. The public and the media are being forced to recognize that the US is no different from Egypt or Spain or Greece or any of the other places where images like this are commonplace.

Dream on. When most white Americans see these images, they don't think of them as happening in "America," and to "ordinary Americans." They think of them as happening in "the ghetto," a separate place "where black people live." The rest of (white) America is still good ol' (lily-white) America in their deluded minds.

Mindysan33
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2014-08-19T19:22:59Z —
#14

Boundegar:

Maybe white privilege.

I think you hit the nail on the head... gotta protect those white people from getting our feelings hurt and from having to be empathetic to others... Also, I just wanted an excuse to post this gif.

Franko
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2014-08-19T19:36:09Z —
#15

hey, don't drag the Doctor and Amy Pond into this.

Mindysan33
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2014-08-19T20:02:42Z —
#16

How about this one, then.... This is a far more common one, but I still dig it. Her earrings make it, I think.

IanMcLoud
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2014-08-19T20:03:06Z —
#17

No. Not Robocop. You need a bigger gun. You need Terminator 2.

tachin1
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2014-08-19T20:07:24Z —
#18

These people aren't white once you know they're English.

IanMcLoud
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2014-08-19T20:08:31Z —
#19

Actually, come to think of it, the T2 Terminator would be a respectable solution to the pig problem in Ferguson.